The Penalty Game
by Theorangeapple
Summary: When Mel woke up in the world of Hunter x Hunter and saw orange letters and numbers flying around people's heads, she figured out that her life was about to be screwed. Inspired from the manga 'The Gamer'. Unsure about Pairings. Edited version.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: Chapter 1**

 **Inspired by 'The Gamer' by Sun San-young and Sang-ah.**

 **I don't own Hunter x Hunter.**

 **Author's note: Sorry but this is not a new chapter, I had left writing for a while and had been very unfaithful to my readers for that I apologize and hope that you decide to give this story another chance. I have re-edited and made some changes which will most likely affect the plot later on. The second chapter will also be posted in a few days. Edited and Revised.**

* * *

 ** _Prologue_**

* * *

Suzuki Mel was never what you called a social kid.

Her mother who was of British descent often complained that the city they lived in wasn't colourful enough, this idea although sounding incredulous was taken into account when her family made the unintelligent plan to change cities out of the blue and within the next week boxes were packed and without much say in the master plan the five year old Mel quietly sat in the car with her baby brother, Simon.

Her father was a rather simple man, though Asian he tended to be quite the ladies' man. Faithful of his words he never went against his wife's words until they became impossible to follow up which then again were quite often.

London was loud, bright and somehow more colourful like her mother put it.

"Aha! This place is perfect!" The lady yelled out.

Baby brother, Simon gave a bubbly laugh to his mother's unnatural enthusiasm but Mel sighed and started helping her father unpack the boxes from the car and into their new house.

A week or so later her mother approached her, her face looking like a helium balloon when she was trying to hide her huge smile "Young lady, starting from tomorrow you're going to start your kindergarten."

Mel knew this was inevitable so she just simply nodded her head.

"I'll go pack."

* * *

The principle looked a little concerned.

"I'm sorry...It seems that I'd overlooked this small detail." her voice sounded hazed.

Although outside of the office and not a part of the conversation, it was pretty clear to Mel what were they talking about.

"But...strong girl..."

"Still, I hope you...concern"

"Yes...understand...but I believe that she can adapt." her mother's voice came from a distance.

"If you say so" the principle said sounded rather unsure.

She stepped aside when she heard footsteps approach near the door, someone opened it and a woman who was in her late fifties looked down at her tiny form with a tiny smile.

"Hello Mel. I'm your principle, Mrs Brown".

Her parents soon emerged beside her and Mel gave a small bow "Good morning".

A moment later the principle appeared with a female staff who looked like she was in her late twenties, a hesitant smile was present on her face but she extended a hand towards Mel's parents and a conversation later she was handed off to the nursery teacher who was tugging Mel towards her supposed classroom. She waved weakly at her parents who stood at the gate of the kindergarten and slowly faded away from her sight.

Mel mumbled incoherently whilst being dragged by her homeroom teacher, Is this how they treat kids here? She wondered but didn't complain. They passed by a few doors and took a turn or two before arriving in front of a light wooden door, sounds coming out of the classroom echoed in the hallway and teacher stood confused as to what to do first and looked at her awkwardly.

"Wait here okay?" Mel hummed, pretty awful for a kindergarten teacher.

The teacher stepped inside and made a rather pitiful effort to quiet down the class, Mel shuffled outside remembering her past experience to something similar like this. She heard the teacher call out her name from inside and signaled her to introduce herself to the children.

Mel stepped in, her head low and her tiny form moving slowly wishing nothing more to run, run back to her parents comforting arms. She felt a hundred stares on her and the class lay deadly silent as she slowly lifted her head trying to recollect her memories to past incidents.

"Hello."

The kids stared. The teacher gulped.

But her stoic look gave no indication of her nervousness or how anxious she was as if she knew what was coming at her way.

"Freak!"Someone gasped.

A series of whispered gossips began circulating around the classroom, each kid glancing at Mel and whimpering or pointing out the obvious to their friends. Mel didn't even flinch, she knew and had experienced this several times before so much that it didn't even affect her now. So she decided to remain stoic, unpredictable, unsociable and cold. That way no one would try to approach her and she would make sure to do the same.

"Look at her eyes..!"

"Grey and...nd scary!"

The teacher tried to calm the class down by hushing them and patting Mel's shoulder, prompting her to say something.

"Our friend Mel, now has a few words to say about herself!" she spoke loudly in an attempt to hush them all.

Mel stared at them, giving a self introduction would not make things better. Children were easily affected, cried at things that may seem unusual or strange and were gullible. She didn't say anything it was better not to socialize, better not to try since she knew what the outcome would be.

 _'Rejected and betrayed'_

Her Home teacher was in no better condition, perhaps a bit worried as to why she refused to speak.

Mel almost pitied the teacher who clearly showed a lack of experience in this field. Wanting to make things easier for the elder lady and avoiding all the hassle she walked towards the empty seat in the corner of the class. Several eyes followed her when her bag thumped against her desk and she sat down.

"Hey! Why do you have such scary eyes?" one of them shouted.

Mel looked unfazed as she locked her gaze with the chestnut haired boy who had quite the nasty mouth. The kid flinched but her gaze penetrated deep inside of him and he felt intimidated, scared and suddenly he felt as if the ground underneath his feet had disappeared.

The result? He bawled his eyes in front of the class.

Surprisingly for Mel, what seemed to be the cause of insults thrown at her also helped to keep people's mouth shut up about her.

The others erupted like a chain reaction and soon the teacher was faced with a teary eyed class and one unfazed girl who showed little to no concern.

She turned her head towards the window and closed her eyes, wondering how much longer until she achieved her dream of becoming a world class scholar.

* * *

Elementary school was worse than kindergarten.

Fifth grade was a living nightmare for her. Kids teased, bullied, bribed and teachers didn't really want to dirty their hands.

Her once long elegant hair which her mother adored had been chopped to a short bob cut because of the sticky gum applied on her hair by some asshole when she was sleeping in the infirmary.

Mel wasn't really affected but seeing the face of her tear stricken mother her heart had shattered, guilty that she didn't feel any kind of emotion even though her mother had been so painfully affected. Her life was her family and to see her mother breakdown, her father ready to invade the school to beat up her bullies and her little brother's snot covered face, her fists clenched and she swore that she'll no longer let things be this way.

The next day she was cornered by three guys whose faces were full with a smug grin.

"Hey monster! I'm sure you can take the blame for breaking the windows again, right? Not that you would refuse..." The one in the middle paused before speaking up again. "Or else you know what happens ..."

He clenched her hair and pulled.

Mel snapped.

 _'No more of this shit'_ she inwardly growled and harshly grabbed him by elbow, gripping it tight until her knuckles went white and that her nails dug inside his arm which made him yelp and lose his grip on her hair.

"Or else what?" she spoke up loudly.

A crowd had gathered and peering glances surrounded her.

"Or else what!?" Mel yelled anger seething and overflowing.

The boys fear stricken face caused her years of emotional injuries to further scar and her fists tightened, before she knew her fist slammed against his face and with one last angry snarl Mel walked away.

Her steps echoed in the hallway which was filled with other students, her act had caused panic and commotion in the whole corridor.

Years worth of frustration and emotional scaring had all lead to this point and she felt somewhat relieved, her fist which were never meant to be abused like this was aching and it would definitely leave a bruise just like the guy's cheek.

She briskly made her way inside her class and sat down but not before burrowing her eyebrows at multiple shouts of-

 _-That was so cool!_

This was her first and last detention.

The next day, the news had spread like wild fire in her whole school. Apparently someone had recorded everything and posted it online before it went viral and the next thing she realized the monkey boss and his subordinates were on their knees while begging her for forgiveness.

Mel shrugged, at least the threats and everything stopped.

* * *

Her parents stepped out of the principal's office.

Mel's form stiffened "Mom I-"

Her words were cut by a loving pat on her head.

"You did good, honey."

Eyes watery, she clung to her parents.

* * *

Middle school wasn't half as bad as Elementary school but somehow she had managed to get a secret fan club, other than that nothing much had changed much as she decided to stick to her dull socializing skills.

Her brother had become more popular and was much more liked by other people being the more extrovert and friendly one out of the two. Not that she had a problem with it, she loved him in every possible way and showered him with her love even though her parents would often complain that she was spoiling him too much for his own good.

Her grades had remained the same from Elementary school, unrivaled and always on top of her grade. Truthfully, result day was the only day she looked forward in the whole year.

If there were two things that Mel could be extremely proud of in her life it would definitely be her grades and her very cute and adorable brother.

The first two years of middle school mainly comprised of her loner days, getting mistaken as blind and an extensive research on overseas diplomatic relation and culture of various small countries.

This had changed by the third year when the perfect guy transferred in her class. He was from the island nation of Japan, a lineage they both had in common and was god gifted with a strikingly handsome appearance along with a set of the brightest teeth she had ever seen.

She called him perfect because that's how everyone would describe him.

Girls ogled at him for his looks, guys admired him for his personality and teachers praised him for his marks.

Basically, he was an attention whore. Not that it was intentional but he made everyone take notice of him everywhere he went to the point when it almost became unusual when people didn't turn their heads to look at their prince charming.

She could literally see the sparkles when she saw him and cringed. Yep she was still fine with being alone and staying out of trouble, thank you.

Mel heard the school bell ring distantly and she grabbed her newest issued book from the library, the very philosophical novel of War and Peace while heading towards the rooftop. Historical fiction fantasy wasn't always her first choice, the book was thick around a thousand pages but what caught her attention wasn't the bulk but the words of the author printed at the back of the book.

 _'War and peace is not a novel, even less is it a poem, and still less a historical chronicle'._

She had pondered over the words of the author spending more time reviewing the words on the back cover than the content inside. The statement didn't even make much sense, was it a question or an answer and if so what was it trying to answer? What was exactly War and Peace?

The rooftop was relatively empty, the majority of the school choosing to remain on the grounds. She gently sat in the corner simply out of pure habit and was so busy and engrossed in the book that she hadn't really noticed a small black bob suddenly shift in her peripheral vision. That's why her heart almost thudded out of her chest when she heard a loud voice out of nowhere.

"Hey!"

Mel jolted upright and came face to face with beady brown pearls, her face quickly changed from a startled one to that of puzzlement and she scrunched her forehead in confusion when she recognized the face of the transfer student.

 _'What was his name again?'_

He offered her a small smile "My name is Sato Hayato but you can also call me Shawn."

Mel looked at him weirdly. Had he just read her mind? It didn't matter, the situation was a bit too uncomfortable for her and even though she knew she was being rather rude but decided to ignore him anyway.

Her eyes dropped low on her book not really registering the words but hoping that the perfect would get the message that she wasn't really interested or rather ready to have a sudden conversation like this.

Apparently he did not when he decided to sit down beside her with a gentle thump and started peering over her shoulder making Mel squirm. Too close, she wanted to yell but her mouth remained shut, this was way out of her comfort zone and it was almost getting unbearable.

"War and Peace? I think I've heard of it before. Leo Tolstoy right? I'm a fan too."

At this point Mel had sealed her ears and she turned her head to the side and shifted forward wanting to create space between them. It was strange, usually she would glare, push or act shrewd but somehow she couldn't even look him in the eye.

She felt Shawn shuffle and he fell back putting pressure on his hands and leaned backwards. He watched her harmless form and eyes casted away avoiding contact.

"You do know that I don't bite right?"

Mel flushed and an inner rage started building up, she hadn't felt this embarrassed since elementary school and she refused to take it anymore. She stood up and tried the best glare she could manage at that moment, he didn't flinch but he looked serious as if trying to match the intensity in her eyes minus the hate part.

"You have pretty eyes." He tossed in casually.

Mel spluttered, cheeks reddening further, apparently something had to be done with this crazy dude and quickly.

"W-W-What?" she spluttered looking flustered.

"Great! You can talk." He grinned under his boyish bangs looking satisfied.

Mel stared at him in confusion. Could it possibly be that the transfer student was mentally ill? It made sense, despite his devilish looks, great personality and good grades it could be that God had given him one less thing or rather make him a lesser thing because of mental illness to balance him out. After all no person could have it all.

He got up suddenly and extended his hand forward. Mel eyed it suspiciously and refused anything less than a glare to offer him.

"Peace?" he sheepishly offered.

"Look, I'm sorry I didn't mean to get you uncomfortable or anything." Shawn sighed and sheepishly rubbed his neck before giving her an apologetic look when he noticed that she was refusing to budge.

 _'Yeah right, as if'_ she snorted.

Shawn heard the bell ring and decided to cut their meeting short, something that he was sure that Mel was looking forward to since the beginning.

"As I can see that you like reading obviously, as an apology I would like to give you this! Volumes of my favourite manga!" And before she could even say something he tossed a comic book towards her and rushed off.

Mel fumbled a bit before catching the comic (mind you she already had one thick book tucked under her arm) and glanced at the open entrance of the rooftop.

Oh yes, mental indeed.

It so happened that in the end she couldn't return him the comic back and decided to take it home. Reaching home she greeted her parents and headed into her room while hanging her bag on her chair and neatly arranged her books aside on her study table. Her eyes glanced towards the catchy comic and she threw it on her bed before she decided to head towards the bathroom for a good soak.

By the time she came back into her room Mel felt exhausted and slightly cranky. Her mind had been preoccupied by the mentally unfortunate Hayato Shawn and she was afraid that he would drive her into the same direction.

She desperately searched for a distraction and so far studying had proved to be useless and the more she thought about his stupid face the more annoyed she felt and losing control over her own emotions was the last thing she wanted right now.

She considered reading her newly issued novel which was the newest translated version of the popular War and Peace but then she figured out that spending time on something as historical as war and peace would definitely not help her.

Mel didn't mean to be judgemental but legendary historic novels weren't always her cup of tea. The only reason she even issued them was because she always contemplated that books were better than company of fellow human beings (excluding her family of course).

But then her eyes landed on the abandoned comic on the bed.

 _Hunter X Hunter. Was it?_

Mel didn't even realize when she had already finished it and had fallen asleep.

* * *

Since then Shawn became her shadow starting from creepy stalker methods. Mel found him as an eyesore; he was annoying, loud and had given her a heart attack more than once. He had stuck to her like a backbone and had refused to even let her use the restroom in peace. Mel found him extremely irritating often threatening to throw him off the school building and wanted nothing more than Shawn to leave her alone.

But what Mel didn't expect was a day where she didn't mind his presence as much as before. He had upgraded from an eyesore to a small bug. Sure he was still as annoying as he'd ever been but somehow she had managed to get past her middle school life with him by her side in a blur.

Before she knew it they had already become friends, not that she would ever admit it.

She never wanted her first friend to be a creepy stalker dude who had major otaku issues.

Mel awarded the best year of her life to her first year of high school.

Her grades had shot up even more placing her at number one in her school and twenty-ninth in the national mock exam. Her brother had won the Taekwondo national championship and Mel had actually made an effort to try keep up with conversations with her one and only friend.

Shawn had been the same as before. Nearly perfect (the sparkles and everything were still there), loud and maddening as ever. Mel had considerably became close with him, they hung out regularly to a point that she even brought him home one day only to be embarrassed her family who were tear stricken to find her bring home a companion.

Before Mel had even realized, her mother took a leap towards Shawn and cupped his hands tightly giving him a rather serious look.

"I know my daughter can be a pain in the ass sometimes but she's really smart and might be able to earn lots of money in the future so please don't leave."

Mel fumed and gave a half hearted glare to her mom who looked as if she was on cloud nine. She quickly grabbed Shawn's arm and proceeded to free him of her mother's clutches and dragged him towards her room.

"We'll be listening!"

Mel rolled her eyes hearing the chorus.

No one had understood the infatuation of Sato Hayato with Suzuki Mel. The all perfect Hayato wanting to befriend the school's most brooding and freak eyed girl ever, had never really made sense to anyone, not even to Mel.

The second year of high school also happened to be Mel's last year.

The morning was pleasant and Mel gave a little smile as stepped out of her house noticing a silhouette against the morning sunlight.

"Morning" Shawn yawned.

She gave a slight nod and fell into steps beside him. The morning was unusually peaceful but Mel liked it this way, Shawn hadn't started his morning rant yet and she was grateful for that hoping he would-

"Hey! Did you hear about what happened back when Mr. Beck went to Saitama-"

 _'Anddd there he goes again.'_

Mel wasn't especially irritable that day but somehow the peaceful harmony of Mother Nature which had been shattered made her mildly cranky.

"-and he started screaming when thought he was alone in the onsen! Like can you- Wait are you even listening to me?"

"No." She paused "Why must you provoke me as the first thing in the morning?"

Mel quickened her pace trying to outmatch his footsteps and with a slight jog to her feet and soon she was lightly running on her toes, the wind caught her breath and weaved through her short but soft locks.

"I wasn't trying to!" she heard Shawn yell.

She stopped swiftly and turned on the balls of her foot near a sharp turn on the road to face the black haired teen walking at a leisure pace and was a good fifty meters away from her looking as if he was on the verge of laughing.

"Idiot!" she shouted back.

Mel saw him laughing and a small smile tugged up on her face feeling like she was eight again. His hair swept to the side with the gentle breeze as he fixed his gaze on Mel and his eyes slightly widened when he suddenly heard a loud noise of screeching tire.

"Mel look out-"

She could hear Shawn's voice ring in her ears distantly.

Little did she know that he had anticipated this moment her entire life.

* * *

Mel opened her eyes to nothingness.

Silence was plastered everywhere and the emptiness seemed to go on forever. Her head throbbed and her throat felt extremely dry, she coughed and tried to stand up albeit wobbling a bit. She felt light headed and her inability to recall anything made it worse, the empty space looked as though it had been covered by a white sheet and Mel helplessly looked around.

 _'That's right...Didn't I die? So then this must be...'_

Mel gulped.

"Afterlife..." she murmured quietly.

Suddenly out of nowhere she saw a shadow and judging by the increase in the height of the shadow Mel guessed that whoever or whatever that shadow belonged to was slowly advancing towards her. She stood guarded and alert, the shadow was distinctively familiar but it didn't resemble the shadow of a human being.

Soon a blur came into view followed by small irregular shaped feet, a bulgy torso, a small round shaped sat head on its non-existent neck along with a small crown which looked seemingly crooked from afar.

"It's a...penguin?" Mel stood baffled.

The penguin looking figure continued padding its way to her awkwardly and released an audible sigh when he was close enough for Mel to take complete notice of his appearance. His head barely crossed her waist and his tiny yellow beak suspiciously resembled a scowl.

"So missy, how does dying feel like?" The thing suddenly joked.

Mel blinked, not really registering his words.

"You...How can you talk?"

"Is there a reason I cannot?" he said irritably

"Well yes, technically the mechanism of human voice is mainly dependant on the vocal folds present in the larynx. On the other hand the sound producing structure in birds is the syrinx, which is usually a two-part organ located at the junction of the bronchi and produces sound independently hence causing many birds to have two acoustic sources which mainly unable them to produce the same sounds as us. And also because of speaking organs that we've been gifted but remains missing in your species such as the mou-"

"Okay enough!" it screeched abruptly breaking Mel's train of words about the communication system of words.

"How many times must I repeat to people that I am not that hideous ugly creature that you speak of?"

Mel shrugged.

"And for you information I am not a penguin. I am the great author King Penguin!"

Mel snorted "Just because you add an author and king to your name doesn't make you any less of a penguin as far as I can see."

"I hate humans like you, always thinking you're better than the others and looking down on unfortunate people just because you're a bit smarter than them! Just you wait, I'm going to jot this down on your resume."

Mel remained indifferent to whatever he said but her eyes perked up on the latter part "Resume?" she sounded amused.

King gave her a rather snobbish look and decided to ignore her before waving one flabby arm in air and somehow magically conjured a clipboard along with a sheet of paper stuck to it out of nowhere. He grabbed a pen which came along with the sheet and continued to note down something.

Mel looked slightly entertained, it wasn't everyday where she could see a talking penguin write down something mean about her. She looked down and glanced down at the sheet stuck to the clipboard. Her name, date of birth, blood group, medical status, physical health, mental ability etc were all listen down below.

She sighed and looked around somehow slightly amused by the fact that she had died a few moments ago. For someone who had just died Mel was handling it rather well, she wasn't really panicking or crying in fact for some strange reason she felt oddly satisfied.

She didn't have many regrets. Mel wouldn't really say that she lived her life to the fullest but at least she wasn't disappointed in herself, she had managed to make a friend along with acing all her tests and had even gotten to see her cute baby brother grow.

Sure she died really young but she didn't really entertain the idea of dying old either. Her mother and father had showered her with love and she came to love her family more than ever, the only regret she had was that she hadn't gotten to spend more time with them and Shawn too, somewhat as well as her dream of become a world class scholar.

She gave a small smile, she could probably read more so in heaven the only reason she wanted to become a scholar was not because of appreciation or recognition or bringing change but it was because she loved the beautiful aspect of the world itself.

Mel was definitely going to miss her family, her cheerful and loving mother, her peaceful yet mischievous father and her most precious brother. She sniffled a bit at the thought of them crying near her death bed where her motionless body would lie, maybe she really wasn't ready for this. Leaving her family like this would no doubt leave them grief stricken and she couldn't bear the thought of her family mourning and be the cause of their unhappiness.

Though Mel wasn't too sure about Shawn for all she knew he was probably clinging to her body and bawling his eyes out right now.

"Dying sure feels...insignificant" she snuffled, a bit emotional.

King glanced at her from the clipboard "Well technically you're not dead yet".

Mel shot him a confused look indicating she hadn't quite fully understood him. King sighed looking sour and also not in the mood to explain stuff, he just wanted to be curled up in his bed after his faithful hours of work.

"We are in a pocket life or what you might know as afterlife and I am your judge."

"So my fate is decided by..." the words 'by a penguin' went unspoken.

"That's right, me" He looked pretty smug after that sentence.

Mel wasn't really in the mood for being sarcastic so she ignored the look and proceeded with her interrogation.

"And? What do you have in mind?"

He hummed "Well you see, normally people go to heaven or hell depending on the number of good or bad deeds done in their past life." Then he pointed out one fat finger at her (she had no idea how that finger came) "But then many a times there also some cases where a judge is unable to decide the path of the soul."

"So...?" she prompted.

"So normally cases like this end up reincarnating, they are granted another chance in life in a different world where they have no recollection of their past lives and from there on the council decides what to do with the soul once it passes way."

Mel wanted to interrupt him and ask him about this 'council' but let him go on.

"But in your case, your death has taken place at such a time where the only available world is experiencing a plot change."

"A plot change?" Mel let the words roll out "Could it be that the world is changing itself?" But then again that didn't make exact sense.

"Well something like that." He paused for a bit before wrinkling his brows apparently coming across something unusual in the report but went on "Normally the council pushes off the work to the authors and we're supposed to fix the problem but alas, we authors have only so much power and are unable to bring out a solution."

"Who are these council people and authors exactly?" Mel questioned.

He gave her a lazy eye "Authors are basically like your average salary men in heaven who have a high post and look after separate individual worlds. Ah by the way I am the author of fiction." King explained "The council on the other hand are a bunch of old men and women who gather together once every hundred years to discuss about the problems that often occur here. I guess it would make more sense if I just call them angels like they do in your world."

Mel wasn't fully satisfied with the vague answers that King was lazily throwing at her, she had a long list of questions and she wanted them all to be answered now but she doubted that the author was really in the mood to comply with her so she decided to cut it short and enquire about something that had been bugging her for a while.

"Thank you for all the information that you have provided me" she even bowed to look a bit more courteous "But I have a feeling that you have a purpose for giving out this information, to put it into simple words, out with whatever that you're playing around in your head."

Mirth danced in King's eyes, civil yet frank maybe the young female was more impressive than he previously thought and if so no wonder that the council deemed her worthy of the mission.

"You're correct. Sadly this certain world has been causing a lot of uproar in the upper ranking people, they have made many attempts but so far nothing has worked until now and that's why the council has put together a very good and solid plan which is also kind of our last hope to fix this issue."

Mel contemplated his words trying to make sense of the direction of this conversation and visually paled a bit when she had a vague idea of what he was trying to convey.

"Could it be that plan also incorporates me?" she gulped.

King sighed, not looking pleased either "Yes, the council has chosen you as their last pitch. Now don't give me that look I'm not exactly happier either, I can't believe that those old bastards are leaving such an important and classified duty to a _human."_

Mel didn't pay attention to the insult but instead was pretty close to panicking; now she was really regretting not doing a few more good things in life because she had absolutely no wish doing any of that stuff either, not after she had just died.

"No! I don't want to."

He shrugged "It's not like you have a choice here."

"But...but why me? There are around six thousand people who die every day. I can't be their first pick, I can't be, I don't have the capabilities neither do I have any wish of living once again."

He shrugged "How would I know, go ask the council that not me."

"Fine, where can I find them?" she asked mildly annoyed.

He gave her a are-you-stupid look before exhaling "I'm sorry but the only two options you have here right now is either you do this mission and satisfy the council or you wait here in this pocket dimension which technically means dying of boredom since there is nothing here, until they hold their next meeting."

"How long do I have to wait?"

"Approximately 96 years 8 months 5 days 6 hours 8 minutes and..." he scratched his barely visible chin "...23 seconds"

Mel scowled, clearly luck always refused to be on her side.

"This is not over, I'm still put out by the fact that your stupid council has chosen me out of the thousands of better candidates who certainly have better chances to fix this problem of yours than me." She grumbled.

"Alright, to make you feel better I'll let you on a little secret." King smirked.

Mel's hope was rekindled and she looked at him full of expectations.

"Word has it that the reason that you were chosen for this task was because someone from the higher ups pulled strings on you. Apparently that someone was pretty insistent about the fact that you'd be able to handle the job pretty well" then he gave her doubtful look "Well clearly he or she wasn't in the right mind."

"Okay...and how is this possibly going to help me?" she asked frustrated.

"Hmmm good question, actually this can give you a reason to blame someone else and hurry along because I don't have all day" he offered giving her crooked smile.

Mel was clearly very dissatisfied and felt cheated and King acting all sarcastic wasn't helping either, he was right though no use moping around, she had no choice but to do it and grumbling about it won't make the situation any better.

She inhaled deeply and let out a slow steady breath "I'll do it." She decided firmly.

"Excellent." The penguin offered her a smile before magically summoning a series of books out of thin air and dumping them on her.

"This is the world you will be going to. Make sure you read and remember the plot well after all this world's story line depends on you." He said nodding to himself.

Mel caught one of the books being dumped on her and checked the cover. Her eyes widened "Wait wait what's this?!"

A smile blossomed on King's face "Ah! judging by your reaction I presume you have already read this book right? I think I read it on the report, might've missed it."

"What book!? This is a freaking manga! I take my words back I don't want to do any of this anymore!" she argued.

"Sorry darling but I'm afraid that you have no choice but to do it anymore. Look on the bright side you already know the story line and that means you can start this right away! Which also means that I finally be free of my duty!" King exclaimed.

"Wait what if I get stuck? Aren't you going to give me some kind of instruction manual or something?"

"If you do get stuck don't worry I'll send help and also please say 'Happy me' once you begin."

He snapped his fingers, something that she became aware of at an alarming rate when she to fade away. Mel wanted to yell and scream, an urge she had been trying to surpass for a while as she looked at him powerlessly and with a thousand and one questions running through her mind.

"Ah, don't forget your main mission though! The minor changes are okay, just be sure that the plot stays on track because if you mess up you'll probably land up here again. Other than that I wish you best of luck for your journey!"

The next time Mel opened her eyes she was in a garbage can with big words floating in front of her.

 **Welcome To the World of Hunter X Hunter.**

And then and there Mel felt really bad for calling Shawn an idiot before she died.

* * *

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 **With best regards,**

 **Theorangeapple**.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Chapter 2**

* * *

 **Warning: Novice Grammar.**

 **Enjoy.**

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 ** _-After Tuesday even the calendar goes_**

 ** _W T F-_**

 ** _~Anonymous_**

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 ** _Menu_**

 _"Hey Mel, do you believe in life after death?"_

 _"No." She responded flicking through her cell phone._

 _"_ _Why is that?" He asked burrowing his brows._

 _"Because after you die, it's the end of your story, you live you die and after that there's nothing."_

 _He booed at her "Why must you always be such a killjoy?"_

 _"Why do you think it would be fun to live once more?"_

 _"It is! I mean who knows we might end up as best friends again in another world again!"_

 _She cringed. "I wouldn't want that."_

 _"Ehhhh Why?" he whined._

 _"I don't think I can bear living two of my lives with you bugging me and stalking me all the time." Her lips curled into a frown._

 _He gasped and gave her a look of horror "It's called insuring your friend's safety not stalking!"_

 _She gave him a look._

 _He stuck out a tongue at her "You're seriously no fun Mel!" he inhaled before directly facing her_ _"But you know life after death could actually be fun though." She shot him a weird look and tilted her head._

 _"And how do you know that Hayato?"_

 _"I just do Mel. I just do."_

* * *

Mel stared and stared at the random words afloat and decided that figuring out the orange things that were floating in front of her eyes would be a first in finding out what would she do now.

She got up from the garbage can with the thump and noticed that the orange scribbles seemed to shine and appear more clearly in the dark.

 **Player: Mel**

 **Level 1**

She was confused at first and stared long and hard at it before noticing a yellow horizontal bar like thing floating under her level. It was her health bar she mused, the bar like thing was almost half empty and appeared dull yellow in the dark light.

Mel's eyes then started to focus on her surroundings and noticed that she was standing in an alley. The alley she was in wasn't a technically bad or a smelly one, it wasn't relatively warm either but the coldness swept her off her feet once she stepped out on the battered and worn out streets.

Mel shivered when the cold air came in contact with her petite body and instinctively pulled her hands close to her and rubbed her arms. It was then when she noticed how thin she was, she necessarily wasn't all skinny and bony but she wasn't perfectly healthy either. She wore a plain old white dress which was actually more like a rag and her feet appeared a bit swollen due to walking bare feet in the cold.

Her head turned from side to side and saw the sparse number of the people on the streets. Only a handful of shops were open, the rest were still closed which meant that it was still relatively early and that the day had just started. Mel then turned to her right and started walking aimlessly in her new found environment.

She walked a few steps before something caught her attention and she stopped in front of a big window of a store. It was a clothing shop where coats, sweaters, mufflers hung in front, they looked warm and comfortable on her petite cold body but what caught Mel's attention was neither the shop nor the warm clothes that were inside the shop.

Mel gasped and stared at her own reflection in the glass window. She had somehow shrunk into a little kid who looked around the age of no more than six, her brown hair had grown much longer reaching her hip. Her grey dilated pools stared back at her in surprise and curiosity ran through her as she slowly inched towards her reflection.

She looked almost the same as she did before except that she had somehow magically turned into a little kid. Her hand outstretched and she unconsciously touched the reflection of her eye in the window before realization hit her that the store keeper had been looking at her strangely and a flush of embarrassment came over her before she took off with a sprint.

The brown haired roamed around the street for a while noticing the number of people on the street had increased and more stores and shops had opened up.

The more people came out on the street the more number of orange digits and green bars her vision came in sight to.

Mel observed carefully before noticing that unlike her nobody was actually on _Level 1_ except for babies.

Heck even the children were a higher level than her.

There were people with different health bars too, some were long and full to the brim and others had medium sized green bars.

But her health bar was small, worse it was only about one-fourth filled and shined a bright yellow. Her stomach released a loud audible growl and she deduced that starvation was probably the main reason that had dropped her health bar lower than before.

But of course there was always a chance of her being cold or worrying for a place to stay or maybe the stress she had on her head on what to do next-

-Wait a minute.

Hadn't the stupid penguin told her to do something after she reached here?

 _"Nah you won't be requiring all those stuff, we have already arranged something for you. Just remember to say 'Happy Me!' when you reach there."_

She turned back on her heel and sprinted across the streets and towards her trash hole. What if that stupid penguin had something crazy in stock for her?

She didn't want to attract unnecessary attention and plus she was sure that she got a good amount of prying glances while she was out on the street because of her eyes.

Her trip to the garbage dump was short and she quickly huddled herself into the corner of the alley. Her body shivered a bit as she reluctantly wrapped her arms around herself in a hopeless attempt to keep her body warm.

The last time she remembers feeling this cold was when she had been stuck in a cave during a winter storm in Greenland.

Her teeth clattered a bit before she determinedly started to ignore her freezing body and decided to press the matters at hand.

Closing her eyes and inhaling a deep she monotonously said-

Happy Me.

If Mel's alley had been dark before it became even darker when she uttered those words. A large window/screen popped in front of her and she quickly yelled out a startled cry of surprise quickly distancing herself from the foreign object. To her dismay the screen followed her around.

Mel gave the screen a rather peculiar look. She had never ever seen anything in her life like this before except on one occasion but that would completely be illogical and utter nonsense after all that would mean the she is in a-

-Video Game.

A freaking video game.

She felt like strangling the penguin.

Mel eyed the screen almost cautiously, the options in front of her gleamed brightly in the dark and she noticed the familiar tabs on the screen.

The first option on the top most corner part of the window was that of her Status. Bottom to her Status was her Profile after that the Skills option which was followed by her Quest Log, Help option and ended with the Settings option.

Mel gawked at them for a while before deciding to give it a free test. She hesitantly lifted her right hand and tapped on the 'Status', the screen flickered before changing and Mel stared at her stats long and hard.

 **-Exp for Next Level:** 100

 **Max Health Points:** 60

 **Current Health Points:** 17

 **Attack Power:** 5

 **Skill Power:** 0

 **Defense:** 2

 **Speed:** 10

 **Luck:** -63

Mel gaped while scanning her stats, she knew that her luck purely sucked but for it to be a negative sixty-three totally annoyed her to levels.

-While somewhere up in the heavens a smirking penguin sneezed loudly.-

She quietly huffed and closed her Status screen before she proceeded to tap at her Skills option.

Mel frowned a bit when she saw that her Skill's slot was empty. If she had no skill to use then would she get skills once she had leveled up? How would she level up anyway, her stomach growled loudly and she smirked.

Well it was time to find out.

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 **Quests**

The moment Mel stepped out on the streets her surroundings darkened and a screen plopped in front of her surprising her and she gave out a yelp.

 **-A Side Quest for you has appeared.**

 **Do you wish to accept?**

 **(O) (X)-**

She silently stared at the window before pressing the '(O)' button with her finger and the screen changed.

 **-Congratulations! Your Quest Log has been updated!-**

The screen disappeared after a few seconds and Mel wondered if that meant she had to check her Quest Log. She whispered 'Happy Me' and her surroundings darkened again and everything suddenly paused.

Her 'Menu' appeared in front of her and it was then when she noticed that her surroundings had paused. The people walking past her, the birds in the sky, the noise, and the cars everything had suddenly frozen.

A huge grin broke out on Mel's face and she grinned to herself.

 _'Oh this is going to be so useful later.'_

Her attention then fell onto her Menu and she clicked on Quest Log. Another screen popped up replacing the other one, Mel skimmed past her quest and her grin grew larger.

- **Quest: Steal fruits.**

 **Quest Rewards: Fruits, 100 Exp**

 **Time Remaining: 9mins 58seconds-**

Mel had to admit that this was rather fun and adventurous. It was not as if she liked it (she'd rather be in her comfy bed cuddling her little brother) but the adrenaline that rushed through her veins and the act of doing something which would give her a good reward definitely pleased her.

She closed the screen and her surroundings returned back to normal, Mel gingerly started walking around in search of the roadside market. Honestly, she was too excited to do this quest even though the mission was that of stealing some petty fruits.

Mel rounded around the corner of the street and her eyes brightened up on the sight of rows and rows of carts filled with vegetables, jewelry, ornaments and oh yes _fruits_.

Her stomach let out a low growl in response.

Quietly she padded her feet towards the nearest fruit stall and opened up her Menu. Her surroundings grew dark once again and time froze, Mel grinned inwardly and decided to pick up an orange but when her fingers touched the orange they went through the orange.

Horror took over her face as she quickly jerked her hand back from the orange and investigated her fingers which turned out to be completely alright.

"So I can't touch stuff when the whole world is frozen…?" she muttered to herself.

Mel closed her Menu screen and the clock began ticking once again. The shopkeeper who was a fat man with greedy eyes seemed to notice her and a scowl came up to his face.

"Hey kid, get the hell out of here!" he yelled at Mel.

Mel looked at the shopkeeper with an annoyed look. What was his problem if she was standing in front of his shop (with the intention to steal of course but he didn't need to know that).

He only owned his stupid cart not the freaking road.

The man hissed when Mel didn't budge "Hey I said get out of here! Because of trash like you my customers get scared away and don't come to me."

Mel tried not to look offended.

Because of her? Did this man have a screwed up mind or something because he obviously was scolding the wrong person.

"Get out of here before I come knock some sense into you!"

Mel's eyes narrowed, Ohhhhh this guy definitely needed his fruits stolen.

With quick steps she quickly reached out for the nearest fruits and grabbed all she could before she quickly broke out in a sprint.

"HEY! She stole my fruits!" Mel heard the fat man yell behind her and grinned.

She ran and ran with all her might and strength, her legs strained, her ankle clicked and clacked but she didn't stop neither did she look behind.

Her adrenaline pumped into her veins and she heard the shouts of men getting louder behind her, with each passing second their running footsteps came closer and closer and suddenly she stopped.

The men chasing after who were most likely the fat man's minions looked at her in surprise when she stopped running all of sudden and they stopped too.

Mel twirled around and offered the men a small smile which caught them surprised, behind them the fat fruit cart owner came huffing and puffing whilst sweating bullets as if he had ran a marathon.

"What are you all doing? Catch her at once!" The fat man screeched suddenly.

By this time the streets had become crowded and there was pretty much commotion everywhere around her. Mel received pointed stares and glances from every individual that was in the radius of a hundred meters. She smiled even more to herself in delight the more attention she receives the more real her trick gets.

The men who were after her seemingly thinking that she was ready to surrender stepped towards her and attempted to grab her by the arm that is until she disappeared.

Everyone remained stunned silent for a moment their eyes remained glued to the same spot where the once petite girl stood and was no longer there.

There were small gasps and shrill cries when they all realized that the girl has someone magically and mysteriously disappeared. The fruit owner who looked too terrified to process information as to what was happening in his surroundings landed on the ground with a loud thud when his legs gave away too astounded to process what his eyes had witnessed.

"W-W-Where did she go?!" he shouted frantically before ordering his men to search for her at once.

Meanwhile in dark alley a petite girl stood with a satisfied impish grin on her face.

Did she mention how much she loved her Menu?

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 **Luck**

Mel was truly happy when she gained a level upon completing her mission. She was happy when her health had recovered full when she ate that delicious tasty looking juicy watermelon. She was happy when she realized that her speed stat had increased by one and she was happy extremely happy when she was given another mission of stealing fruits again.

But then she remembered that a negative sixty three luck meant that something was always supposed to go wrong with her when a man knocked her out by hitting her on the back of her neck.

Still she was rather coping up well enough in this new shitty world wasn't she?

Then she blacked out.

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 **Junkyard**

Mel woke up when the air in her lungs was sucked out and she coughed out loudly.

She heard a thumping sound again and her body started to numb.

Another thud later and Mel realized that she was being kicked in the ribs.

Her eyes were blinded with a black cloth and her arms and legs were tied with a rope. She gasped and squirmed in pain when she felt another kick aimed at her stomach, there was a shuffle and she heard people speaking.

"I think she's learned her lesson Boss."

"I hope she has because next time I will rip her arms out." Someone spat out. Mel recognized it as the fat fruit cart's owner's voice.

"Let's just leave her here Boss, no one will even know that we did this and she will never be able to come close to you again." One of the minions said.

The fat boss smirked and looked down on Mel "You're right. This place is for trash like her, let's go men."

"This is what you deserve for being a freak eyes." He spat out.

She heard faintly heard footsteps moving away until silence engulfed her ears, her arms moved in a painful manner before she slowly tried to get up whilst wincing in pain, her arms moved behind her back and thankfully the ropes that had bound her arms and feet were loose enough to sag and she freed herself. Once she freed herself she nimbly worked her fingers behind her head to unfold her blindfold.

Once her blindfold fell off she moved to investigate her wounds and flinched at the number of bruises she saw on her body. She grimaced when she accidentally touched her ribs which were definitely bruised, she wobbled when she tried standing up and started walking with the support of a wall beside her.

She was most likely in another alley she suspected, her nose scrunched up at the pungent smell that arose from the dumpster nearby and she cringed. Unlike the previous warm and clean alley she was in, this was the exact opposite a foul smell filled her nose, there was trash everywhere and bottles of beers were thrown all over the place.

Mel's stomach growled loudly and she slowly sagged her way outside the alley with the support of the wall and her eyes widened at the sight she saw. The sun was almost setting in the horizon, the sky shone a bright orange and the wind blew gently. The streets were almost deserted with the exception of a few passed out people and beggars on the street, there was trash and litter everywhere resembling a dump yard very closely.

The houses around her were mostly broken and in a poor condition but the thing that caught Mel's attention was huge board that hung attached to a rusted pole that read-

-' **WELCOME TO METEOR CITY'**

And Mel felt like knocking herself out when she realized that she had been thrown into the junkyard city.

But nevertheless darkness swept her off her feet once again the very next moment.

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 **Atheist or Theist?**

When Mel's eyes opened she saw another pair of eyes staring back at her. With a slight 'eeeep' she jumped and the pair of eyes instantly retreated.

The pair of eyes belonged to a boy who was most likely in his mid teens, they held a look of predatory before softening at the sight of Mel's shocked form.

"You have very pretty eyes." She heard his smooth voice.

A feeling of intense déjà vu took over her.

He looked so familiar she mused before pushing the thought away. His unwavering smile made her inspect him carefully with glaring eyes as slowly tried to inch away from him, his eyes bore into her soul and she flinched.

"Wh-who are you?!" She croaked out, her voice harsh and rough.

"I'm" and his smile grew wider while Mel's face grew paler "Chrollo Lucilfer-"

Her stomach churned.

"-Nice to meet you."

She wished that she could faint once more.

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 **Connection**

King looked down upon the mirror portal he owned and gave out a loud hysterical laugh when he saw Mel's reaction.

"King." He heard a commanding voice behind him.

He yelped loudly.

"Oh Sire Angel Of Darkness! As always your visit has erm surprised me." He reluctantly bowed his head before the dark winged angel.

"No need for formalities King." The angel offered him a small smile.

"Oh yes sire." He said before picking his head up and taking in the appearance of the superior angel.

And as always he looked younger than he did before.

"What may I do for you today?" King humbly asked. Despite the fact that he was pretty sarcastic and laid back when it came to work and business ordeals, he was quite respectful to his superiors, well only some of them.

"I wish to attain the progress report of Suzuki Mel."

King's brows perked up. As far as he remembered the angel of darkness had no relation what so ever with the project of Hunter x Hunter and it was strange that he of all angels wished to get involved in this project as the angel of darkness upheld the reputation of never getting involved in other people's business.

"I would readily give them sire but I'm afraid that the progress report of Model 287 is classified and confidential." He sternly replied.

A frown marred on the face of the rather handsome looking angel and he sighed in dismay.

"Alright I'll go talk to the council." King's eyes bulged when he heard that, he would go as far as to ask the council!?

"As you wish sire." He nevertheless responded.

"Yeah I'll see you later King, oh but before that can you do me a favor?"

"What favor?"

"Take care of Mel for me."

With that he disappeared.

And King was left flabbergasted.

What on God's name did Shawn Ezekiel i.e. the Angel Of Darkness, one of the highest positions of angels had to do with Suzuki Mel?

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 **Dun Dun Finished!**

 **Honestly I wrote such a short chapter I'm disappointed in myself but due to natural calamities (laziness) and supernatural happenings (more laziness) I am unable to upload (I'm too confused in how should I finish this chapter so I ended up with this) more than this.**

 **But fear not fellow hunter x hunter loving fans! For I shall upload soon…..and hopefully not next year.**

 **You guys should see the smile on my face every time I see the reviews. Like I seriously resemble a legit fucked up clown. Not even joking, I have proof.**

 **~~FAQ~~**

 **1) The question about Mel's condition of her eyes and the over reaction will be cleared in the next chapter***

 **3) Am I fan of 'The Gamer'?**

 **Okay so a LOT of you must be actually thinking that I am a fan of 'The Gamer' but no I'm not.**

 **Tbh I've never even read a chapter of 'The Gamer' (okay maybe 1 or 2). I had just read the summary and plot of the story and it had inspired me quite a bit and viola! It turned out to be this!**

 **So yeah all my gaming experience comes from actual games and RPGs and If you're looking for a good offline RGP game to play I highly recommend the 'Aveyond' series. They made up my childhood.**

 **But yeah I do read manhwa/Korean manga or comics, not that anyone cares.**

 **So yeah that's it! Hope you enjoyed the chapter and thank you so much for all the reviews, follows and favorites. You guys are awesome and I love you!**

 **Except an update from me very (not) soon….**

 **Review/follow/favorite if you want to hear more from me!**


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